Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been so long, but it's been a crazy week and a bit!!

So here's what we've been up to.

We left Vancouver and picked up our Rent a car - we got a free upgrade to a bigger car - his name is THOR! he is the god of all cars and he is massive we love him!!

We headed over the ferry to Vancouver Island and found a place to stay. The next day we explored Victoria, there was a special deal leaflet that we got which gave you free or very cheap entry to a lot of the tourist attractions in town - we went on a free boat tour of the harbour, went to their underwater gardens - effectively an aquarium, a museum full of minature models, bus tour all around town, and a butterfly park - a busy busy day!! I didn't think our evening could top it, but it did, we headed cross country with the intention of getting to Tofino on the West coast... however... due to most of the roads being logging roads, and poor map quality and poor directions advice from locals, we actually ended up staying in a tiny town called Nitinat and having to sleep in the car cause it was so dark! The next day we woke up with a flat tyre and then (I'll say we.....you know who you are!!) managed to lock the keys inside the car..... Luckily a very nice local man helped us get the keys out and change our tyre!!! We headed back to a slightly bigger town, got a new tyre and headed back to Vancouver - 1st spending in the night and a morning in Naniamo - the harbour town!!

Alamo said our car was fine so we headed up to Whistler, got to see all the ski runs, and some of the olypmic areas, but mostly everything was cordoned off. Cross country to Jasper from there was always gonna be a long drive, it took us 2 days, with lots of stop offs to see various waterfalls and lakes. Don't let the above picture fool you, we've actually only seen one lake that isn't frozen solid!

Jasper is really lovley place, so beautiful surrounded by mountains and unlike in Whistler there's actually a lot to do for those who don't ski!

Our hostel in Jasper has been great every night they have a bonfire so we met some people and hung out there. The next day we decided to give cross country skiing a try - it was amazing!! Such good fun! But exhusting, and going downhill is really hard! To say the least we all fell over a lot - besides Kat who took to it naturally! Going uphill however was an even bigger challenge... I actually ended up slipping backwards and causing a domino effect and everyone fell....

Today we decided to explore the Maligne Canyon - the river bed at the bottom of the canyon is frozen in winter, so we walked along the top and then through it which was amazing!!! We wanted to go for an afternoon hike, but we'd been hiking all morning in our cleets, so ended up going to Pyramid lake, walking around on it, sitting in a boat and heading back home. Now I'm off to do my second lot of laundry!! My poor thermals are being worn an awful lot!!

Hope you are all well, I want some emails with news!!!

xxx